The Ukrainian Orthodox Church representative caught the Culture Ministry official in the act of manipulation

18.02.2016

Andrii Yurash, the Head of the Department on Religion and Nationality of the Culture Ministry, made an attempt at distorting the content of court decisions on the church in Ptichya Village in order to make it look as if there is no oppression of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. Archpriest Nikolai Danilevich was the one to make such statement on his Facebook page.

According to the Ukrainian Orthodox Church (UOC) representative, on February 3, at the meeting of the Public Council under the Ministry for Foreign Affairs A. Yurash reacted emotionally to the comment made by the UOC representative on interfaith conflict in Ptichya Village and tried to prove the UOC of Kyiv Patriarchy community right in the aforementioned situation by referring to the copies of court decisions demonstrated by him under the pretense of safeguarding the interests of the UOC of Kyiv Patriarchy community.

“Imagine my bewilderment when I saw that those were the copies of court decisions on the situation in Ptichya Village of September 2, 2015, wherein the religious community of the Holy Dormition Church of the UOC of Kyiv Patriarchy of Ptichya Village had been clearly denied in their lawsuit against the religious community of the Holy Dormition Church of UOC of the very same Ptichya Village”, Nikolai Danilevich wrote.

“ When answering, I refuted A. V. Yurash’s words by pointing out the obvious evidence and quoting portions of this document”, the Deputy Head of Department on External Church Relations of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church added.

It should be recalled that at this meeting, Andrii Yurash, the Head of the Department on Religion and Nationality of the Culture Ministry, has put forward a draft statement, which claimed that there is no oppression on religious grounds in Ukraine.